Nina Childress
21 Jun - 09 Sep 2013
Nina Childress
Rideau vert, 2012
Courtesy de l’artiste ; Galerie Bernard Jordan, Paris-Zürich-Berlin ; Galerie Iconoscope, Montpellier ; Heinz-Martin Weigand Gallery, Berlin.
Photo : Philippe Chancel
Rideau vert, 2012
Courtesy de l’artiste ; Galerie Bernard Jordan, Paris-Zürich-Berlin ; Galerie Iconoscope, Montpellier ; Heinz-Martin Weigand Gallery, Berlin.
Photo : Philippe Chancel
NINA CHILDRESS
Rideau vert" [Green Curtain]
21 June - 9 September 2013
To mark the "Nouvelles Vagues" season, Nina Childress presents "Rideau vert" [Green Curtain] a theatrical and troubling in-situ creation. This curtain, which opens onto an empty stage and is surrounded by another closed curtain, conjures up a ghostly presence and gives free rein to the imagination. The artist makes all human figures vanish, thus shaping a pure form of decor. She describes this work as a “giant poster,” itself the reproduction of a smaller version she painted from a photo taken at the beginning of the twentieth century. We thus move from the red curtain, symbolising performance, to a green carpet, symbolising games; visitors may choose whether they are spectators or players.
Nina Childress is a painter, and she describes her craft as a form of "painting about painting." From her punk period with the group Lucrate Milk and the Frères Ripoulin collective, to the study of female icons such as author Simone de Beauvoir or Empress Sissi of Austria, not forgetting the representation of a pure, decontextualised motif (hair, soap), the artist’s quest is one imbued with humour and provocation. More recently in her work, green, erotic female figures have started to appear. Might one perhaps imagine these figures within the space framed by this "Green Curtain"?
B. in 1961 in Pasadena (USA), lives and works in Paris.
Rideau vert" [Green Curtain]
21 June - 9 September 2013
To mark the "Nouvelles Vagues" season, Nina Childress presents "Rideau vert" [Green Curtain] a theatrical and troubling in-situ creation. This curtain, which opens onto an empty stage and is surrounded by another closed curtain, conjures up a ghostly presence and gives free rein to the imagination. The artist makes all human figures vanish, thus shaping a pure form of decor. She describes this work as a “giant poster,” itself the reproduction of a smaller version she painted from a photo taken at the beginning of the twentieth century. We thus move from the red curtain, symbolising performance, to a green carpet, symbolising games; visitors may choose whether they are spectators or players.
Nina Childress is a painter, and she describes her craft as a form of "painting about painting." From her punk period with the group Lucrate Milk and the Frères Ripoulin collective, to the study of female icons such as author Simone de Beauvoir or Empress Sissi of Austria, not forgetting the representation of a pure, decontextualised motif (hair, soap), the artist’s quest is one imbued with humour and provocation. More recently in her work, green, erotic female figures have started to appear. Might one perhaps imagine these figures within the space framed by this "Green Curtain"?
B. in 1961 in Pasadena (USA), lives and works in Paris.